He stood. A task that seemed heroic to me right then. Gravity had increased tenfold while I slept. He walked over to an office nook we have off the kitchen on the way to the garage. Flipped on another light there and ruffled through some papers stacked on the countertop. He grimaced, and I knew that wasn’t good. Al is the guy who will pull you naked from a puddle of puke without batting an eye. He’s like a janitor for junkies. Cleans the clogged-up shitters in the seediest of bars. But whatever was printed on those sheets of paper revolted him. He tapped them straight and returned to his chair without meeting my eyes, which was another bad sign.

“Here,” he said, handing me the stack of papers face down. Then he stared at his empty hands as though they were coated in some residual filth.

I turned the stack over. Saw printed screenshots from a phone. Texts sent to Cassie’s phone from mine.

I thought my nightmare had ended. Clearly, I was wrong.

Chapter Seventeen

Here’s how the first text read, sent Sunday morning, around two fifteen a.m.

Hey Casx!! Show wuz great!! Made sum new fans!!

This was followed by fuzzy pictures of Malia flashing me on stage at the Full Moon Saloon. My eyes are locked on her exposed breasts – her baby feeders as I’d called them at the time. Then pictures of me talking to her by the bar with our arms entangled. My head is tipped toward hers like I’m whispering sweet nothings, not politely asking her to get lost like I was. A drunken smile is smeared on her face.

Beneath this was another.

Got more than the dead to rise t0night!!

Below the text box was a picture of my erect penis with a female hand wrapped around it. Nails flecked with turquoise paint. I guess it could have been another man’s cock; my face isn’t in the photo. But you know what your own dick looks like. So does your wife.

Lik3 old times!! Remember?

Tug 2x for a backstage pass!

Oh, God. It wasn’t a false memory. There’s Malia on her knees. I’m in her mouth. I have a beer in my hand that I don’t remember drinking. A stupid, wasted look on my face. Now I know why Cassie’s not here. There’s no explaining my way out of this.

D0n’t b3 mad. You kno3 who I am.